Hello from Anner and Aaron!: January 2013

Haaaaappy biiiirthday tooooooooooooo meeeeeeee.

Can I just say it has been one of the funnest weeks I can remember??   I think it's because I really didn't have any expectations so everything that happened was a big surprise. So thanks family for making birthday month a lot of fun.

My actually birthday started off with a bang. I was on a crowded bus, heading to work, when I could see Mary was calling. I didn't answer because I couldn't talk easily on the bus. Then 15 seconds later, I saw that the nursing home called. My morning-brain went into a tail-spin and I immediately thought, "Oh no...grandma dies on my birthday!" As my brain chugged through figuring out what I would need to do if grandma was gone and choking back the tears, I jumped off the bus and called my voicemail. To my relief, there she was!! Grandma was disoriented yelling into the phone, "Ann?? Ann...are you there???" Grandma is alive!!!

Then I listened to Mary's voicemail. She thinks that grandma somehow remembered it was my birthday and knew what day it was and put it all together. That seems a little bit impossible because she can barely remember anything...but maybe she did?   Who knows? So I called Grandma back and we had a nice conversation...."Hi Ann...do you know what day it is?"

"It's Thursday."

"No! What day is it for YOU!" She quizzed me, probably in the same fashion people do to her all the time.

"It's my birthday!"

"Yes! That's right! It's YOUR BIRTHDAY!!" Grandma wished me a happy day and wished me a the best year ever (her normal birthday greeting). After that, I knew the day would be spectacular.

In the afternoon my team surprised me with cupcakes, which was, in fact, a total surprise. I think they enjoyed surprising me as much as I liked the surprise. I was in the middle of a meeting when they bardged into the room wiht nutella cupcake and singing. You just can't go wrong with nutella. We all had a good time.

When I got home, all the curtains were drawn. I knew Aaron was up to something and boy was he!! He decorated the entire house. And I mean - every - last - inch...was covered in birthday decorations. He made a totally four-star dinner..from scratch. And not just pasta, either! I say kudos Hubs, kudos! We opened presents and by then we were both totally exhausted we collapsed on the couch.

It was a good, good day.   Here are some random pictures...I'll admit they don't all go together or exactly "tell a story" but there were some of the highlights from last week. Watch for all the decorations in the photos.

We had friends over for Game Night. Here we are "pre-gaming it" with
homemade chocolate cake and ice cream.
I picked this picture because you can see some of the decorations.
Aaron must have worked for hours.